§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many inmates in HM Prisons in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland respectively are contained in conditions in which they are required to slop out and in which establishments they are being detained; and what are the relevant categories of inmates kept in such conditions; and [HL143]
What is their programme and timetable to end the practice of slopping out in HM Prisons in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland. [HL144]
§ Lord RookerThere are no prison establishments in England and Wales where slopping out is part of the standard operational regime. Twenty-four hour access to sanitation is provided in normal location accommodation by means of integral sanitation, electric unlocking, manual unlocking or open access.
There are three wings across the prison estate on normal location where manual unlocking at night is still undertaken by officers. Buckets are also provided in these wings for prisoners as an alternative to calling an officer to manually unlock them. These wings are:
Dartmoor C Wing, which currently holds 34 Category B prisoners.
Exeter D Wing, which currently holds 40–45 young offenders.
Swansea B Wing, which currently holds four Category B prisoners.
Integral sanitation was not provided in these wings originally because the intention was either to close them or carry out refurbishment work. Plans to refurbish the wings are currently being developed for consideration.
Not all cells in segregation units and health care centres, which are not usually classified as normal location, have integral sanitation, and there is currently a programme under way to provide integral sanitation in such cells where this is considered to be appropriate. However, there will continue to be a proportion of cells in these facilities where sanitation is not provided for operational reasons.
The Scottish Executive should be approached about matters relating to the Scottish Prison Service.